CHANGE OF HEART

Gorgie chief Budge insists Levein was taken out of firing line for his own good and hits back at claims of ‘manipulation’

SHE was hailed as the Queen of Hearts, the saintly saviour of Tynecastle for her role in rescuing and rebuilding the fallen Edinburgh club.

As Robbie Neilson’s team easily saw off Rangers and Hibs to clinch the Championship title in March of her first season in charge, she was dubbed Ann Budge OBE (Over By Easter).

From replacing pay-day loan firm Wonga on the front of the team’s jerseys with the Save the Children charity, to Hearts becoming the first club in the UK to pay the living wage to all employees, here was a lady who could seemingly do no wrong.

But since the departure of Neilson and the disastrous appointment of Ian Cathro as manager, Budge has slowly grown accustomed to life in the firing line.

The subsequent dismal failures of Cathro and then Craig Levein, the boss and director of football, has turned the heat up on the IT tycoon.

Budge admits the criticism of her tenure — including accusations Levein had been working his boss from the back — have led her on occasion to question why she remains in charge. As do unsavoury incidents like the anti-Levein graffiti that was scrawled on Foundation Plaza last week by an angry fan before the ex-Scotland manager was sacked.

Yet despite the occasional waver, she retains a steely determination to restore her club back to the top end of Scottish football.

‘What annoys me most about the criticism? I guess when you hear things like I have been manipulated,’ said Budge.

‘I get irritated by that. It is easy to make assumptions. But I do not believe for a second I’ve been manipulated. I know who makes the decisions at this club and everybody at the senior level of this club knows who makes the decisions.

‘I get irritated by ill-informed comments, either because people haven’t asked the question or because they are misinformed.

‘Here’s another very small example. The supporters were all getting upset because somebody said Hearts had no representation recently when John Robertson was inducted in to the SFA’s Hall of Fame. That’s absolutely not true. It’s misinformation.

‘I don’t do social media but I’m not blind to (what is being said). You can’t block it out and it is not pleasant for the manager or anyone on the receiving end.

‘I have had moments where I have thought: Why am I doing this? Do I really need this? But then I remember why I am doing it.

‘I do believe genuinely that, like me, the majority of supporters feel passionately and want the best and they get frustrated when things are not going well.

‘Yes, a lot of supporters are unhappy and they will show that by booing or whatever. But they don’t go and destroy or graffiti the plaza. That’s individuals who behave badly. But you can’t let the small minority spoil everything.’

Part of the reason Budge took the decision to dispense with Levein before Sunday’s 3-0 Betfred Cup semi-final loss to Rangers was to take him out of the firing line.

‘It was something I thought long and hard about,’ she nodded.

‘I thought about what would give us the best chance of success on Sunday and what would be the fairest thing to do for Craig. Once I had made a definite decision, I felt the fairest thing was to make the decision right then.

‘If I hadn’t made the decision and the result had gone the same way as it did on Sunday, then I think we would have heard more of the booing and I didn’t want that for anybody.

‘I did want to give Craig every opportunity to succeed because I believed in him. I wanted to see through a full 11 league games rather than reacting after one bad result. It was trying to balance this business of hoping it would happen but not waiting forever.’

Budge freely admits she has made mistakes during her tenure. Chiefly, agreeing with an unnamed board member that Levein could be manager and director of football at the same time and not taking a fuller role in the football operation herself.

‘Have I made mistakes? Loads, not just in football,’ she said.

‘I have made appointments — not just on the football side — that were the wrong appointments. But if you are going to make decisions and be successful, then you are going to make some mistakes.

‘The whole question of whether I should have gone along with the suggestion of Craig doing both jobs is one I will ask myself for a long time.

‘It is easy after it hasn’t worked to say that I should not have done it — but there were reasons why we did it.

‘Do I regret it? Possibly, yes. Clearly it didn’t work, so there has got to be a tinge of regret.

‘I stayed out of the football side almost exclusively other than working with Craig or the head coach. If I could, I would change the extent to which I got involved with the processes in the football department.’

Budge plans to remedy that by creating a new sporting director role, which will differ from Levein’s vacated title. She hopes to have the new candidate in situ quickly. Until then, Levein may take over some of those responsibilities but a Hearts spokesman stressed he will not be interim sporting director.

‘Craig is heavily focused on youth,’ said Budge. ‘That’s his big love but I need the new sporting director to take responsibility for a host of other things, such as recruitment, selling players and our medical department.

‘In terms of the first team, the manager will call the shots. He will say what player he needs and then it will be up to us to work out a way of doing it.

‘I want to make sure all our decision-making processes are clear and the accountability process is clear for all these functions.

‘What are my ambitions for this club? They have not changed. Based on budget, we should be fighting for third or fourth spot. No question about that.

‘Players have joined us because we have that aspiration and we want to be playing European football.

‘I’m not saying I’m happy being sixth but we have got to stay in the top six.

‘From where we are today, my first hurdle is getting into the top six and then the next hurdle is trying for third or fourth. ‘I’ve increased the playing budget significantly over the last five years and that’s where we ought to be.’

There have been times when I’ve thought: ‘Do I really need this?’ Then I remember why I do it